From the very beginning, director Carey Perloff’s production of the Edwardian political drama “Waste” at Marin Theatre promises to be challenging: The set by Arnel Sancianco, which is an almost bare room (just one chair, a chandelier and a set of French doors) takes up only part of the stage and sits at a sharp angle. There is a mobile lighting grid and characters entering and exiting as though offstage.
Challenge us, the production does indeed.
Written by Harley Granville-Barker in 1906 but not produced until 1926 due to some scandalous content, it’s a very talky play. At two and a half hours including intermission, the talkiness makes it feel longer.
Act 3, in which a group of politicians argue and scheme over whether to push their renegade colleague, Mr. Trebell, out of their inner power circle, is so mid-bogglingly text-heavy, it’s hard to follow the nuances of their varying viewpoints.
It’s such a circuitous, complex play, full of contention, changeable viewpoints, characters with multiple agendas, social and political commentary and much more, it’s hard to imagine that any director other than the brainy, intuitive Perloff, former American Conservatory Theater artistic director, could make it so fascinating most of the time.
The unmarried central character, lawyer-politician Mr. Trebell, who is brilliant, woman-hating and obsessed (played by Marin Theatre’s new artistic director, Lance Gardner, a terrific actor), has ideas that he is intent upon enacting.
He has support for his main proposal from a church leader (the wonderfully understated Anthony Fusco) and presumably from his loyal doctor friend (Jomar Tagatac). But when he becomes embroiled in a romantic scandal with Amy, a married woman (a powerful, anguished performance by Liz Sklar), his cohort—which includes the incoming prime minister (Daniel Cantor)—argue extensively over whether that scandal can work to their benefit as the new cabinet.
It’s difficult to like a hero (well, an antihero) who—though he is entirely honest about who he is and what he does and doesn’t want—is so cold-blooded, who treats a woman who loves him so cruelly and who relies on his unmarried sister (Leontyne Mbele-Mbong) to take care of him.
Though it’s hard to feel sympathy for his tragic plight, as portrayed by Gardner under Perloff’s gimlet-eyed direction, he may prompt thoughts about America’s history of deeply flawed politicians and its current political issues, and how women have been treated over time. Have things not changed much in a century?
Hearts might ache for the cast-aside Amy and Trebell’s long-suffering sister.
In other, equally beautifully limned roles, Anna Takayo plays a young woman independently choosing to make a life for herself as a political wife, and Mike Ryan appears as two completely different characters.
Circling back to that third act: The cabinet members argue among themselves, interspersed with appearances from an increasingly distraught Trebell, his priorities so clearly—from the audience’s viewpoint—askew, and from Amy’s enraged, betrayed Irish husband (Joseph O’Malley, excellent in several other roles as well).
Yes, it’s boring at times, confusing, text-heavy, overly long. But simply to watch Cantor as the bellicose, cigar-smoking incoming prime minister, or to observe Fusco’s subtle body language—the way he registers inner turmoil or frustration—or how everyone onstage is, at any second, revealing so many complex thoughts and feelings, is a sublime treat.
In some ways, the playwright’s torrent of words is (ahem) wasteful, but this “Waste” makes every moment full and rich.
“Waste” continues through March 2 at Marin Theatre, 397 Miller Ave., Mill Valley. Tickets are $36-$91 at marintheatre.org.